---
title: "How BYOK Works: Your Key and Knowledge at Request Time"
description: "BYOK lets a system run on assets you supply — your model credential or your private knowledge — instead of the vendor's defaults. This walkthrough traces six steps from registration to an audited response."
---

# How BYOK Works: Your Key and Knowledge at Request Time

**Type:** [How it works](https://yomu.fyi/visual-explainers/category/how-it-works.md)

![Numbered six-step flow diagram showing a request moving from a tenant app through a BYOK gateway that resolves a vault reference, then to a provider call or private knowledge retrieval, and back as an audited response.](https://yomufyi.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/visual-explainers/d9b6db53-5956-4868-910f-ed19280173a6/image-6b6352b8-433e-4f0a-b4fe-e0814318b866.webp)

> BYOK lets a system run on assets you supply — your model credential or your private knowledge — instead of the vendor's defaults. This walkthrough traces six steps from registration to an audited response.

## Explanation

BYOK is a custody pattern more than a feature: the platform keeps a reference to an asset you own, then resolves that reference inside the request path. Registration stores the reference — a secret for a credential, or a connector to a private knowledge source — and each incoming request carries a tenant identity that decides which asset is used. The platform then calls the model or retrieves from your knowledge store, composes the answer with retrieved context, and records lineage for the request. The payoff is that private material stays governed and auditable, while the cost is that rotation, permissions, and expiration become your operational responsibility.

## FAQ

### Where does the platform actually keep my BYOK credential or knowledge?

Usually it keeps a reference, not the value. In the OpenShift Lightspeed example the header value lives in a Kubernetes Secret and the MCP server runs inside the cluster, while the governed data-sharing pattern publishes validated records to named recipients without centralizing raw records. The asset is resolved at request time rather than copied at setup time.

### How do I keep a BYOK setup auditable when the data stays with me?

Track lineage to the source rather than moving raw records, as the county-profile platform does so every published number can be traced. Pair that with explicit access controls and markings plus audit lineage on shared records, and with a policy of reducing unnecessary data access while auditing third-party providers. Governance is what makes keeping custody workable instead of just private.

**Tags:** [AI Gateway](https://yomu.fyi/topic/ai-gateway.md), [AI Governance](https://yomu.fyi/topic/ai-governance.md), [Auditability](https://yomu.fyi/topic/auditability.md), [BYOC](https://yomu.fyi/topic/byoc.md), [BYOK](https://yomu.fyi/topic/byok.md), [Data Governance](https://yomu.fyi/topic/data-governance.md)

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